Decorative mouldings have been applied to surfaces of various types of composite slabs, such as wall panels, doors, cabinet doors, sliding doors and the like. The purpose of the moulding is to enhance the appearance of the slab which may be wood, plastic, metal or the like such that when finished either in its natural finish or painted, a decorative, luxurious panel effect is created. Such panel effect attempts to simulate the overall visual impact created by 19th century wood craftsmen who carved out of solid wood slabs, decorative designs to define individual panels. Such wood carving of today is essentially a lost art and the few artisans left, who are capable of such carvings, could not possibly meet the demand nor provide the panels or doors at marketable price.
It has, therefore, been desirable to simulate the panel effect by using combinations of mouldings with slabs of material, such as in cabinet doors and the like. Panel doors, which have raised surfaces and are foamed in place, are exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 3,402,520. The outer surfaces of the door may be of metal skins which have been stamped to provide a decorative moulded surface which creates the effect of wood panelling.
In cabinet door constructions, it is very common to provide a moulding on the face of the door to enhance the decorative effect of the door compared to a plain face portion. This is often accomplished by assembling components of the door, particularly of wood, to create the effect of a panel being defined within the face. An example of such door assembly is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,731,444. Components of the door are assembled and affixed to a door back support. Assembly of such components is time consuming and on a production basis, can result in joints in the components which remain open to detract from the overall appearance.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,083,160 discloses another type of cabinet door construction which involves the use of a veneer either of wood or of synthetic materials such as Formica (trademark). A relief configuration is imparted to the outer face of the door by forming a groove in the door face into which an insert strip is inserted which lies totally within the groove to provide a relief effect. The difficulty with such door construction is that, in forming the groove, the groove edges are chipped by the milling tool. By placing the strip totally within the door, the chipped edges remain which have to be touched up, stained or otherwise modified to remove the blemished appearance to the door front. A similar approach is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,988,236 where a groove is formed in a door front into which a decorative strip is placed. According to this patent, the solid wood door has the groove formed therein to receive the decorative wooden strip. In view of the door being solid wood, the exposed groove edges can be blended in with the decorative moulding without exposing any dissimilar door core material or chipped veneer portions along the groove edges.